There’s an incumbent ecosystem in the services procurement universe that has made a business out of delivering the bare minimum to keep customers satisfied and maintain the status quo. No, we’re not referring to the “tools” providers but rather the sad fact is that within the more capable vendor management system (VMS) tool sets today, much of the more advanced capability in these solutions goes untapped or is only partially used.

Who is to blame? It’s easy to shoot the messenger (i.e., staffing firms and the incumbent MSPs). But the blame rests with numerous other parties, as well, including consultancies, outsourcing firms, staffing researchers and, perhaps most serious of all, procurement itself.

In this two-part Spend Matters Plus analysis, a refresh of our original 2014 series, we highlight the contributing factors to how and why the staffing and contingent market is failing procurement, concluding with a prescription to start addressing the challenge. In Part 1, we present the evidence of how the staffing and contingent market is failing procurement.